Still Here
by Montydragon
Summary: Dipper's lost somebody dear to him, but he's determined to prove she isn't dead. As he embarks on a quest to bring her back, he will receive help from the most unlikely of places. (Unfinished, will not be finished)
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

A bird flew from a branch as a voice echoed through the misty forest. "We have everything? Water bottles, walkie-talkies, snacks, ear protection, first-aid kits and tools. Ok, guys, remember, if anybody sees anything, you have to call the rest of us immediately!"

Dipper Pines stood in front of his co workers and family, gesturing to the woods behind him. "We all know there's a giant bird in there somewhere, and we're going to find it!" Soos nodded seriously, pulling back his hat, while Mabel grinned and flicked her flashlight on and off again. Wendy Corduroy was smiling, clearly pumped for the impending search.

"Remember, we meet back here in an hour," the young detective reminded them. He slung his backpack over his shoulder and held a hand up to his forehead in a salute. "Let's find this thing!"

"Yeah!" Mabel cheered. She waved goodbye to her friends and brother as all four set off in their designated directions. Dipper waved back, tapping his book through his vest as he entered the woods. He felt like he could fly, almost. They had been planning the expedition for what seemed like forever.

Perhaps a week ago, Soos and Wendy had spotted a gargantuan bird soaring over towards the woods at the far edge of town. They had rushed to the Mystery Shack and told Dipper, who immediately started doing research on whatever the thing was. After three hours of obsessively pouring through his journal, the boy concluded that the animal had to have been a thunderbird, as there were no other mammoth avians in the area. Of course, the pair who had originally spotted the creature were eager to investigate it again.

The plan was to go thunderbird-hunting on the upcoming Friday of the week, just as Wendy finished her cashier shift. They would each go in different directions, as to better cover the massive territory the bird lived in. Several giddy hours of waiting later and they were all ready to go.

Dipper smiled to himself as he walked through the woods, flipping on his flashlight. Man, it sure was misty. Not to mention cloudy. He supposed it was good that there was a storm coming, as it either signified the presence of the thunderbird or attracted it. He still wasn't exactly sure about that entire thing.

He heard thunder rumbling in the mountains just a mile from the path he was walking on. "Should be close," he murmured to himself, scanning the woods and blinking at the dim light. The fog tickled his bare arms slightly and he hugged the journal closer to his chest. Damp would only damage the fragile pages further.

The sky got slightly darker as the boy made his way deeper into the humid forest. It had to have been thirty minutes since he had left the others. Twenty? Why hadn't any of them called yet? Where were they? Slowly, he started to feel a sense of timidity at being completely alone creeping through his body. It was so dark in the dense trees. He wanted to go somewhere brighter.

Suddenly, Dipper felt his heart leaping as he spotted a dark figure in the trees. It was racing towards him, as though it were made of mist itself. He let out an undignified shriek as he snapped to attention and started to race away in terror. A loud hiss came from behind him, and the air was torn from his lungs in panic.

The creature, whatever it was, was getting faster. Dipper increased his pace to an all-out sprint, running as fast as he possibly could. He curved his path, turning sharply again and again in hopes of losing his mysterious pursuer. To his utter relief, the thing seemed discouraged and disappeared into the woods.

Dipper slowed to a halt. Adrenaline still pumped through his veins, but he was struggling to get in air. The exhausted boy flopped to the ground and coughed, wiping the massive sheen of sweat from his forehead. _What was that thing?_

After lying on the ground for several minutes, he rose to his feet and began stumbling back the way he came. It took him a while to find the path, but when he eventually did, he barely felt any emotion. He was worn out. Maybe he should radio Wendy or Soos and ask them to come get him.

That was, of course, before he heard an earth-shattering scream.

_Mabel_.

Dipper started to run back down the path, ignoring his screaming muscles. That noise had come from the direction the creature had been going. The air entering his lungs seemed to get caught as he tripped over fallen trees and roots, gasping for air and at the same time crying out his sister's name.

"Mabel? Mabel?!" His frantic calls were getting weaker, but no less worried. He let out a cry of pain as he fell completely over a rotting tree trunk, tumbling into a ravine. Dipper rolled to a halt and took a second to catch his breath before forcing himself upright once again.

His heart could have stopped when he heard the response. "DIPPER! HE-"

His blood ran cold. His sister had been in pain. Slowly, an icy fire surged through him, filling him with furious energy. He bolted through the trees, not daring to stop for anything or any reason. Dipper was angry, hurt, terrified beyond belief, and now almost mindless. The fury at the thought of his other half being harmed fueled him.

A stream splayed out before him. Dipper slowed, wincing at the freezing cold of the water. The mist here was colder, too. Everything felt like ice. Ice was coating his skin, his eyes, freezing over his nose and mouth and muscles. It trickled into icicles in his hair and froze around his shins as he climbed out of the water. His body felt like it had been submerged in the arctic sea. He shivered as he started to pick up speed again, clambering over rocks as the scene changed.

The thick pine trees he had been racing through minutes before were thinning out, giving way to rocks and sandy earth. Dipper realized this was where Mabel had been searching. She had said she was going to look in the ravines before the mountains, because "Big birds like rocky places and I might get to see a nest of chicks". He was both relieved and horrified by this.

Underbrush became more scrubby and trees disappeared entirely as he burst out into the open, yelling his sister's name. The rocks dropped off steeply, leaving a giant gash in the cliff. Dipper whipped his head around frantically, scanning the landscape and feeling utter hopelessness starting to overwhelm him.

That was, of course, until he saw her body.

"Mabel!" he shouted, tripping over the rough terrain and rushing down the rocks to where she lay. He let out a yelp as the stones gave and he slipped uncontrollably down into the ravine. Battered and bruised, he pulled himself up to his feet and raced towards her, ignoring the bloody scrape on his knee.

His sister rested in a relaxed position, lying on her side with her arms splayed out and legs stretched. Most people would consider this impractical for relaxing, but living with Mabel since the womb taught him that she cared not for practicality. He stumbled down to his knees and started to shake her body, feeling terror rip through him once again. She must be injured, if she was unconscious.

He gazed over her fluffy green sweater with a grinning eagle on it giving a thumb's up. There wasn't any evidence of blood or trauma. Her legs seemed completely intact, and her head just as clean and glittery as it had been an hour ago. She didn't look like she was in pain. Her expression was blank. What was wrong with her? Why wouldn't she wake up?

The thunder boomed again, and Dipper blinked as a drop of rain landed on his nose. He shook his sister harder. "Mabel, wake up! Come on, stop fooling around." He blinked at her skin, suddenly seeming far more pale than it had been previously. The redness usually present in her cheeks was barely visible. He touched her hand, which hung limp and lifeless in his fingers.

Slowly, a terrible realization dawned on Dipper. "No, no, Mabel, get up, get up!" he shouted. "What happened? Why are you like this? You aren't…" He trailed off. Gently he took her by the shoulders and lowered his ear to her chest, pressing as hard as he could through her sweater. He didn't hear anything.

"No. _No_."

Dipper fell on all fours, cradling Mabel in his arms. It felt as though everything were being sucked out of him. "No, Mabel, Mabel, _please_. Please, please, just move or say something or…" The rest of the air in his lungs refused to form words as he started to sob. "No!"

His scream echoed through the woods, but he didn't even notice it bouncing off the rocky walls of the canyon. Mabel, young artist, awesome extraordinaire and bubbly optimist, wasn't breathing or moving or talking or anything. She wasn't stealing his hat, or drawing on his face with Wendy while he slept, or covering his clothes in glitter. She wasn't sitting by his side on the long evenings where everyone had gone home and he felt hopeless. She wasn't making him smile, or hugging him tearfully when he needed reassurance, or making him feel like the best brother ever. She was just lying there. Still warm.

Out of the corner of his eye, Dipper saw movement at the top of the ravine, but he paid no mind. He buried his face in his sister's hair, sobbing and yelling. She was gone. She was _gone_. She couldn't be gone, but she was.

He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder. Blinking and choking, he briefly turned his head to see the horrified face of Wendy. "What… What happened…?"

The young detective couldn't speak. He simply gestured at his lifeless sister, gulping in air and struggling to see through the stinging that was tears. Wendy slowly lowered herself to the ground, touching the girl's face in frantic disbelief. He felt as though everything was crumbling around him as his best friend, tall and strong and sturdy, began to cry with him.

The three lay there in the canyon, two staring at the other in grief while rain slowly began to seep from the clouds. They were now silent, locked in a state of anger and fear and sorrow. They stayed that way until they were found by the last member of the thunderbird hunting party, who had been wandering around for hours looking for them. There they stood. Three alive and grieving, and one gone.

* * *

**A/N: Well, here it is! I have the cover up on deviantart, if you want to see it. Poor, poor Mabel...**

**If you want to review, then go ahead! I love feedback. Montydragon, out!**


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

The sky was dark when Soos's phone rang.

The three looked up, staring at the man's pocket as though it contained a bomb. Slowly, the employee drew it out and hit the answer button, holding the device up to his ear. The remaining two felt as though their hearts were falling through their chests when they heard the voice of the caller.

"_Soos? Where are you? Where are the kids? It's dark out, you're supposed to be back."_

Soos didn't say anything for a moment. He opened his mouth, but no noise came out. Slowly, he held out the phone to Wendy, who took it with shaking hands.

"Mr. Pines, it's Wendy… We're… We're in the woods…"

"_Well, get back to the Shack right now. Those two troublemakers should have eaten dinner by now. And what's up with your voice? You sound like you swallowed a paper shredder."_

Wendy gripped the phone even tighter, her entire body shaking. "Mr. Pines, there's been a horrible, horrible accident…"

Dipper and Soos had to sit there and stare, hanging their heads and gripping the body of the young artist while Wendy explained what exactly had happened. A few times Stan tried to butt in, but it seemed as though the lumberjack couldn't stop speaking until the end of the story. Finally, when she got to the part about finding Dipper next to Mabel, she got choked up and had to stop.

"_What? What's wrong with Mabel?"_

Wendy gasped and rubbed her eyes. "She's gone."

There was silence on the other end of the line. The living stared at the phone clutched in the redhead's hand, waiting for shouts to erupt from it. After a moment they heard, "_Haha. Very funny Corduroy. Now seriously, where are you?"_

"Mr. Pines, she's gone. We think she suffocated somehow."

This time, there was no absolutely no answer. Wendy cringed away from the phone and held it out to Soos, who meekly asked, "Mr. Pines?"

"_This has to be a joke. Soos, for the love of all that is holy, tell me this is a joke."_

Soos shook his head slowly, wiping tears from his eyes. "Mr. Pines, I'm so, so sorry."

Neither party spoke for a moment. Soos held the phone maybe a foot away from his ear, while Wendy covered her eyes. Dipper didn't say a word. He simply gazed upon the peaceful face of his sister, her closed eyes pointed at the stars for eternity.

"_I'm going to wait until you get home to call the parents. If you aren't here in thirty minutes, you're all dead."_

"Understood," Soos squeaked, and hung up. He looked at the other two with an expression that neither truly recognized. If they had to put a label on it, they would have called it desperation.

"I don't think she's dead," Dipper whispered suddenly.

Wendy and Soos looked at the stricken twelve year old with matching hopeless expressions. "Dipper…"

"No, she can't be dead, her body would be getting stiff, and it would be cold. She's still just as warm as she was when I found her." Dipper sounded as though he were trying desperately to stay calm. "That… that thing…"

"What thing?" Wendy whispered.

"That thing that chased me through the woods… It did something to her. She's not dead, she's just… she's just frozen!" There was a layer of hysteria underneath his tone. "Guys, she's not dead! That thing… maybe she's in another dimension or something! Like when we got trapped in the pinball game!"

Soos stared at him, a tiny spark of realization creeping into his expression. "Our bodies weren't breathing then…"

"She's not dead! She's just somewhere else!" Dipper was pacing now, putting two fingers together and rubbing them hard enough to shed skin. Wendy took a step forward to stop him, thought better of it, and knelt down next to Mabel instead. The lumberjack placed a gentle hand on the girl's forehead, a look of disbelief mixed with glimmers of hope coming over her face.

"You… you might be right… S-she's been out here for hours, right? She's still super warm… Like living warm…"

"Ok, we just need to get her back to the Shack and make sure she's safe," Dipper planned. "Unless that thing shows up again, Mabel's going to have to get back from wherever she is on her own. The least we can do is protect her body."

"But Mr. Pines is going to call your parents the minute we show up in the yard," Soos murmured.

"We just need to tell him that she's not dead," the young detective decided. "That… like, we thought she was but she wasn't. Maybe we could say she's under a spell or something? That she's sleeping? It's ok, Mabel will wake up before he notices she's not breathing."

"So, wait, we're going to lie to your great uncle?" Wendy suddenly looked uneasy. "But… What if she's actually dead?"

This comment put their conversation to abrupt silence. Dipper stared over the body of his fallen sister, clenching his fist in determination. "She's not dead," he finally growled. Neither person spoke to him, obviously not wanting to argue against the topic further.

After a quick conversation about getting home, the three set off with Mabel's body nestled in Soos's arms. Rain had broken free, and all of them were soaking wet. Dipper winced at how sodden Mabel's sweater was, knowing that they would have to find some way to dry her off or get her into different clothes. His own vest would probably end up hanging on a hook for the rest of the summer as he waited endlessly for it to dry.

Finally, the boy took a deep breath as the Shack's yard swam into sight ahead of them. Soos slowed his pace and Wendy drifted subtly behind both of them. Dipper found himself unintentionally taking the lead. He could see now that Stan was standing on the back porch, hand over his eyes and his face as emotionless as stone.

With an unlikely burst of courage, the young detective ran into the yard ahead of his friends. "She's not dead!"

Stan reacted immediately, drawing himself up like a grizzled wildcat about to strike. His eyes narrowed as Soos and Wendy followed his grand nephew timidly, Soos almost hiding Mabel's body. "What?"

"She's under some sort of spell… or something…" Dipper panted. "She's going to wake up any time now. I made a mistake."

"I thought you said she wasn't breathing," Stan growled. Dipper cringed and took a step back, bumping into Soos.

"We weren't sure," Wendy spoke, surprising the boy in front of her a bit. Only flinching a little under the man's glare, she continued, "She's not really breathing, but she's still alive. We swear."

Stan scratched his head, his eyes still like furious embers in the porch light. "Kids, I'll understand if she's dead. You can't make up excuses for this kind of thing. That can get you into big trouble." He glared at Soos, an overwhelmingly tired expression fading into existence beneath his angry one. "I expected better from you."

Soos flinched violently. Dipper took a step forward, his voice cracking with stress. "Grunkle Stan, she isn't dead! Just… just give her a week, she's going to wake up, I promise."

Stan stood back. "A week. You want a week." The boy nodded furiously, elbowing his friends. They quickly copied him. "If she doesn't wake up in a week, I'm going to call your parents and tell them that their daughter is dead."

"Correct." Dipper was trying his best to look agreeable despite the fact he was completely freaking out on the inside. "Completely ok, because she's going to wake up before that."

Stan stared hard at the three. They all stood firm, despite the muffled whimper from Soos. Finally, the great uncle gave in. "Fine. But you have to take care of her. And if she's not awake in a week, your parents are finding out." He grumbled loudly to himself. "Soos, take her upstairs. Wendy, go home now."

"But Mr. Pines-"

"Go. Home. Now." Suddenly, Stan didn't look so much like a tired old man. His face had the same fury-filled expression as a few minutes ago, and Wendy visibly shivered under his gaze. He retreated inside and slammed the door.

Dipper turned around to face her. "Wendy, it's ok. If you get here early tomorrow, I'll let you in and we can try to figure out what got her."

Wendy let out a pitifully sad laugh. "Yeah, like your great uncle is going to let that happen. I think he hates me now."

"Nah, he doesn't wake up until the first tour usually," Dipper quickly assured her. His best friend sighed and tugged her hat further over her hair, shoving reddish locks over her left eye.

"Fine. I'll… I'll see you in the morning, Dipper." She bent down and gave him a quick hug, which he returned with as much sincerity as he could, before trotting off down the road that lead to town.

"Uh, dude, I don't mean to interrupt, but like, we still need to get your sister upstairs," Soos spoke from behind. Dipper turned around and looked at him, nodding weakly. The pair walked up the steps of the porch and into the Shack, avoiding Stan, who was watching TV.

As soon as they reached the attic, they stopped. "She's soaking wet, we can't just put her down like that," Dipper mused. "She'll get cold."

"Hm." Soos scratched his chin. "Uh… maybe we should just let her rest on the floor until she dries off. You guys don't have, like, a space heater or something, do you?"

"I think there's one in the hall closet." Dipper ran off to check.

Minutes later, Mabel lay on top of several towels with her sweater, shoes and socks hung up downstairs. The space heater was perched on a pile of books right next to her torso. Soos stared down at the motionless girl, an incredibly gentle expression on his face. Dipper felt surprised. Sure, he knew firsthand how worried and almost motherly Soos could get when it came to them, but he'd never seen him look like that. Finally, Soos sighed.

"Guess I should be getting home," he murmured. "Uh, I'll see you tomorrow, 'k Dipper?"

"Yeah, Soos, I'll see you." The young detective barely looked up as the dejected man walked down the stairs. He heard the back door creak shut after a few moments and tensed before hesitantly relaxing.

The young boy looked down at the blank face of his sister. "Hey, Mabel," he greeted quietly. "Can you hear me? I know you're in there."

Mabel didn't move. Dipper took a deep breath and let it out again, rubbing his forehead. "Um, you're going to have to wake up soon if you don't want Stan going crazy and calling our parents," he warned. "Uh, just a suggestion. I mean, take as much time as you want, but, don't, like, take a week. Ok?" He held a hand to her forehead and pretended that he didn't think it was cooler.

"Well, uh, goodnight," he whispered. "Mabel? I, I really hope you get better." He leaned down and gave her a gentle hug around the shoulders before getting to his feet. After changing into his pajamas and brushing his teeth, he settled down in his bed. His gaze was resting on his sister when he finally closed his eyes and fell asleep.

Weak, cloudy light poured through the windows. Dipper groaned and threw a hand over his eyes, rubbing sleep from them and glaring up at where the sun most likely was behind the misty sky. He yawned and glanced around his room, wondering where Mabel was. She could be downstairs, maybe making herself some breakfast…

He caught sight of the lifeless bundle on the floor. Oh. Right.

The boy pulled himself out of bed and rummaged around in his dresser, eventually finding a shirt clean enough to be presentable. He put it on and checked on his sister. Her clothes had dried almost completely, but he found himself worried when he noticed her fingertips were a bit cooler than yesterday. Oh well, that happened when you didn't sleep under blankets, right? Right?

Dipper made his way downstairs after pulling a spare quilt over Mabel and putting on his shoes. He was going to go out today and have a look at that site near the cliffs. Maybe the creature was still there, waiting for another victim. This time he would be ready. He had a vial of holy water in his pocket as well as lemon juice, several strong herbs and a whole clove of garlic. One could never be too cautious.

He was just about to leave when he heard somebody knocking furiously on the front door.

Grumbling about nosy tourists, he strode over to the entrance and opened the door. The young detective jumped a bit when he caught sight of Wendy, her name tag tucked in her pocket and her expression rather tired. "So, what exactly are we going to do?" she asked immediately.

Dipper was silent. He hadn't remembered what he'd told Wendy the night before. It all seemed to be a hazy blur, seeing his sister dead and all. "Uh…" he mumbled. "I… I was actually heading out to look at the spot where we found Mabel yesterday. Maybe that creature's still out there."

"Aw, boo, man, I have to work," Wendy complained. "I can't go out looking now!"

"Well, you think you could look through some of those mythology books next to the counter?" Dipper questioned. "If you see anything that's big and black and kind of looks like a ghost, then bookmark it."

"Gotcha, dude," Wendy saluted. "You go out and find stuff. I'll tell Stan where you went."

"You're the best, Wendy," Dipper grinned, holding out his fist. Wendy returned his smile sleepily and shoved her clenched hand against his in a fistbump before entering the house, leaving him on the porch. Dipper reached down and picked up his backpack, sighing, as though for just a moment all the weight of current events was lifted. He knew he could rely on his best friend, and that was giving him something solid to hold onto, even if it was only one.

With his pack secured and his materials ready, the boy set off into the woods. He had mentally mapped out the area they had been covering yesterday and knew it may take about thirty minutes to reach where his sister had been. Then, of course, he would have to check out the place he had been as well… Maybe that would be more logical. Then he could follow yesterday's path to where the ravine was.

He passed a few familiar landmarks on the way out, but as the woods grew darker, he began to recognize less and less. Dipper only knew where he was because the path he had taken yesterday was straight ahead. He let out a breath he had been holding when he saw it, knowing that he hadn't made a wrong turn or gotten lost. Now he could simply follow the trail to where he had been yesterday.

It didn't take him long. The muddy ground was covered in scuffs and marks where he had torn off into the forest yesterday, showing exactly when he had seen the monster and which direction he had gone. The young detective only hoped that the footprints stayed the same until the ravine. To his surprise, he couldn't find any marks made by his pursuer. The thing must have been able to fly, or maybe jump from tree to tree. He wasn't completely sure.

The sky began to grow more and more visible through the thick branches of the oak and pine trees. As he looked down, following the trail of marks, he noticed a few rocks and sandier ground. He was nearing the place where the stones dropped off. The place where his sister had been lying on the ground, unmoving.

She was still unmoving. Maybe she had woken up? As much as Dipper wanted that, he didn't want to think about what would be going through Mabel's head if she woke up on the floor of their bedroom, with a blanket wrapped around her and towels under her like a crude nest.

He stopped. He had almost tripped over the edge like yesterday. There was the ravine, spread out before him like a gash in the side of a wounded animal. The light from the clouds faded briefly, making the place seem a lot darker than it had been mere minutes ago.

"Creepy," Dipper shivered, feeling his hand go to his stuffed pocket. If the creature was still here, then it was asking for a fight simply by showing its face. Mess with one sibling, and the other was sure to exact vengeance.

The boy searched the ground where he had found his sister lying yesterday, almost pressing his flushed nose to the stone. There was the mark where she had presumably fallen, perhaps having being chased. And over there, there was a spot where it looked like something had crashed through the bushes. Still, he couldn't find any footprints besides his own and his friend's. He sighed.

He knew it wasn't over yet, though. Maybe he could find some sort of imprint in the great rock face on the opposite side of the ravine, perhaps where the creature had disappeared into the stone. It had appeared insubstantial, so it might have been able to phase through things. However, after much inspection of the sides of the cliff and grasses, he came to the conclusion that besides a few broken sticks and scratches, there was no evidence of where the creature had come from, been, or went.

The boy hung his head. It hadn't even been an hour and he had found absolutely nothing in the exact spot where the creature would have had to be. He supposed he could search the rest of the ravine, but there wasn't much in the way of things to investigate.

Another twenty minutes and the boy had finally decided to move on. There was nothing else there.

He took the trail he had come down on back, this time walking much slower in hopes of finding broken branches where the creature could have carelessly flew. He spotted a branch that had almost been ripped from the tree it was attached to and rushed to look at it. Despite his previous excitement, it revealed to be nothing more than a place where a deer had scratched itself. Ten more meters down the path and he found a few footprints that at first didn't look like his, but turned out to belong to a large mammal of some sort. Certainly not anything that could chase down and kill his sister.

Dipper shuddered. There was that word again. _Kill_. As much as he repeatedly assured himself that his sister was not dead, he was still using it as though everything about it was completely confirmed. His sister had been _killed_. He had found her, heart not beating, lungs not functioning, eyes closed. Sightless.

"Mabel, if you're… you can't… You're not dead," Dipper murmured to himself. "You're going to wake up. Definitely by the end of the week. Exactly." He wiped sweat from his forehead, ignoring the terrible burning feeling in his belly. Was he lying to himself?

The boy eventually reached the spot where the erratic footprints ended, where he had only yesterday been calm and completely assured that nobody was dead. He followed the trail back to the meeting spot, and followed the main trail back to the edge of the woods and the road, which he followed to the Mystery Shack. It wasn't even twelve o' clock. He should probably go looking again sometime in the afternoon.

With a loud sigh and a scruff of the foot, Dipper planted himself on the doorstep and let his face fall into his hands. He had failed. _He had failed_. What was he going to do about this whole thing now? Staring off into the forest, the boy wondered about what could have possibly happened that lead to the… disabling of his sister.

The light of the clouds slunk down through the leaves of the trees slowly. In the ravine, perhaps a hundred meters from where the young detective had been looking, the dim seemed to brighten for a moment, contorting around something that wasn't supposed to be there. Quiet light danced across a small bundle, lying motionless in the sandy earth.

Suddenly, a gasp echoed through the quiet canyon. The light shifted and parted as the bundle unfurled, blinking blearily in the bright of the day. An extremely pale hand brushed dirt from pale, ashen skin, before reaching up to pull back gray-tone strands of hair. Eyes grew slightly moist as a yawn took over the sleepy body.

"Wow, what am I doing here? Kinda quiet, huh? Where's Dipper at?"

Mabel Pines stood up and walked cautiously out of the ravine.

* * *

**A/N: Well, I'm willing to bet about 70% of you saw that coming, but still. I bet a few of you are going to ask me what's going on, buuuuuuuut... that can wait until chapter two or three, am I right?**

**I posted a speedpaint of last chapter's final scene on my YouTube channel. It would mean a lot to me if you checked it out. Plus, it's a speedpaint! Montydragon, out!**


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

After lunch, Dipper found himself a bit tired. Stan was out somewhere in town getting groceries with Soos, and Wendy was absentmindedly leafing through the pages of a mythology book published in the 70's. The young detective checked on his sister, becoming overwhelmingly relieved when finding that her skin was no cooler than it had been that morning, before settling down on the yellow armchair with his journal. He reached into his vest, pulling out his portable blacklight.

"Ok, floating eyeballs, gnomes, weird hide behind thing, dragons…" the boy listed off as he flicked through the pages. "Can't have been any of those, unless dragons are translucent or something… Uh, unicorns… Nope, they don't tend to injure people…"

"Hey, dude?"

Dipper snapped up from his journal, his gaze whipping around until he spotted Wendy peering it through the Employees Only door. "Yeah?"

Wendy shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably. "Do you know when Soos is going to get back?"

"Uh, Stan said they'd be home in like an hour. Why?"

The redhead averted her gaze, staring at the floor intently. "Well… we wanted to look at Mabel. I mean, I totally think that she's alive, somehow, but… well, what if she isn't, Dipper?"

Dipper blinked, gripping his journal just a bit tighter. "She's definitely alive, Wendy. If we were back home, I might not think that, but this is Gravity Falls. She's definitely alive."

Wendy flinched a bit before she sighed softly. Had he hit some sort of nerve? "Even people in Gravity Falls die, Dipper." She swallowed hard, and the young detective could have sworn that her eyes, just for a second, shimmered with tears. His mouth opened just a tiny bit when he saw her fists were clenched. "N-not everything here can live. Y-you know that, right?"

"I know that," Dipper answered. "But… I just know it. I know she's alive. If she were… gone, then I think I'd know that too, but I swear. Somehow, she's alive."

Wendy nodded quietly, for some reason deciding not to say anything else on the subject. "I'll keep looking for stuff," she murmured, leaving the room. Dipper stared after her, tilting his head to one side slightly.

_Well, that was odd. That was really odd. I haven't seen Wendy look emotional like that since… Robbie, maybe. I wonder what she was thinking about_.

He turned back to his journal, clicking a pen in and out and scratching the tip of his nose. It was suddenly almost uncomfortably quiet in the room. He shivered a bit, wondering if he should go and check on Mabel's body again. For some reason, the way Wendy spoke had frightened him. He had never heard her sound so… worried. And the way her eyes kept glancing at him and to the floor and up the stairs and back again…

He hissed in sudden pain as his finger caught on the edge of a page, a thin cut appearing in his skin. He needed to stop thinking while turning. He already had maybe four paper cuts on his other hand from previous summer incidents.

Dipper sighed. Don't think about Wendy. She'll be ok. Just think about finding that creature.

He began to leaf through the pages again. "Uh, fairies… nope, tiger-wolf hybrid? Nope…"

As he continued to turn, he shivered. It suddenly seemed just a bit colder in the room. Had Grunkle Stan left the air conditioning on too high again? It was supposed to be summer, and usually the air conditioning in the Shack didn't work too well anyway. Why was he cold?

He yawned, clenching his book tightly and shutting his eyes. When he opened them, he blinked. He blinked again. And again.

That was strange. Why did it look like Mabel was standing in the doorway?

He blinked again. The image was hazy, as though he were seeing her through some sort of fog, but it was definitely there. The light from the windows and lamp didn't even show on her, instead bending around like some sort of insane warp. He laughed to himself. He must be more tired than he had previously thought, if he was seeing his sister around the house.

As Dipper returned his gaze to the journal in hopes that the vision would simply fade, the thing flickered. The air caught in his lungs when he heard a cheerful voice. "Hey, bro. Why didn't you stay around earlier?"

Very, very slowly, the young detective lowered the journal down, closing it as silently as he could. Auditory hallucinations were rare, and often associated with various mental disorders. Had he cracked yesterday? Had his sister actually died? Was this real? He'd never read up on how to treat the strange phenomenon, but he supposed ignoring it should work eventually. Yeah.

"Bro? Hey, can you hear me over there Mr. Grumpy?"

"Just a hallucination," Dipper murmured under his breath. "Dipper, you're going crazy…"

"Hey! Dip! What's wrong? Why'd you leave?"

He hissed and wiped his eyes, finally looking up and making a very high pitched squeaking noise when he saw that the image of his sister was now maybe five feet closer. He could see her more clearly, though for some reason the light was still doing that trippy-bendy thing, and she had a concerned look on her face. Hands on hips and eyebrows furrowed, she stepped closer. "Dipper, what's wrong?"

_Maybe if I talk to it, it'll just go away_, Dipper thought crazily to himself. "I'm hallucinating," he answered as sincerely as he could.

The vision cocked its head, raising an eyebrow. "Um, what? Bro, there are zero hallucinations around here. I don't see any, and if you were hallucinating, then I would totally see them too."

Dipper felt his breathing speeding up. Maybe this wasn't a hallucination. Maybe Mabel was actually…

"I'm going crazy," he mumbled aloud. "Mabel, are you dead?"

The image gave him a strange look before it burst out laughing. "Oh, no kidding! You are crazy!" Dipper looked on, debating over whether or not to believe his mind as his sister almost fell over, cackling up a storm. She even had the same eagle sweater on.

"Yeah, I am," he replied, as though speaking to himself. "I'm going crazy because I'm seeing my sister, and I can't be seeing my sister, because my sister's upstairs, and the only reason I'd be seeing my sister right now is if she'd be-"

"Dead!" the vision snorted. "But, no, Dipper, I'm not dead. You want me to like, call Grunkle Stan and ask him to make you a doctor's appointment, or…"

"This doesn't make any sense," Dipper murmured.

"No joke," Mabel agreed. The young detective jumped back into the chair as she took another few steps towards him, her image growing clearer and clearer. No longer did she look as though she were a fog, but now appeared almost solid, just with a much grayer body.

"Mabel, I'm hallucinating you," Dipper said as seriously as he possibly could.

The vision of his sister tried to look humored, but he could see underneath that she look almost as worried as Wendy had a few minutes ago. "Uh, haha Dipper. Good prank. Um, seriously though, why did you leave me alone out in the woods?"

The boy shook his head frantically. "No. No. This can't be happening. Mabel, you're not real."

"Dipper, I'm totally real." Mabel looked completely anxious now, a look Dipper hadn't seen on her in a quiet a while. "But you left me out in that canyon spot. I just…" she trailed off, a confused expression overtaking her features for a moment. "Like, sat down for a nap or something. Can't really remember. You could have at least gone looking for me or something."

Dipper wiped his eyes, feeling his breathing starting to speed up. "But… but you weren't in the ravine"

"Yeah, I was," Mabel insisted. "I just woke up there like an hour ago. Hey, what time is it?"

The boy gasped for air. "Mabel, it's one in the afternoon."

Mabel stopped talking immediately, freezing in her tracks. She stared at him in surprise, and under that, disbelief. Dipper felt himself shaking violently as she took another few steps, so that she was standing directly in front of him. "...Wow. Heh, guess I really slept in."

"No kidding," Dipper muttered. "What… What's going on?"

"What's going on is that I slept for pretty much an entire day on a rock!" Mabel yelped. "Dips, why didn't you come get me?"

"Because you were dead!"

There was silence in the room. Mabel stood in her indignant stance, frozen, while Dipper's mouth gaped wide. A million thoughts were racing through his head at once. His sister couldn't be here. This had to be some sort of trick. But… but if she was here… what did that mean? Had she actually been killed? Had… had he been wrong?

Finally, Mabel let loose an uncomfortable laugh. "Uh, Dipper. I'm… I'm pretty alive right now. So, uh…"

Dipper shook his head slowly once again. "Mabel, your body is upstairs. I…" he stopped talking. "Wait a second…"

He got up off the chair and started to inspect his sister thoroughly. He looked over her almost colorless skin and slightly transparent body, watching the way the light curled about her rather than simply hitting her skin. He reached out to touch her, then thought better of it and instead watched the way her hair flowed ever so slightly, as though she were in water. Her skirt even rippled a bit without wind.

"I'm not dead, Dipper," Mabel insisted, but he held up a hand, backing away from her. He motioned for her to follow him as he started up the stairs. "I'm not dead-"

"I don't think you are," Dipper breathed. "But I'm pretty sure that's your body upstairs, and I want to see if you can get back into it."

"Ok," the girl agreed rather quietly. Dipper winced at the high pitch in her tone. She was clearly becoming scared. _Well, if I thought I was alive and somebody told me my dead body was lying upstairs, I'd probably be freaking out, too_.

The pair of twins walked up the steps. Mabel shivered a bit as she ascended, and her brother watched her anxiously. When they finally reached the top floor, the boy walked ahead of her and opened the door to the attic, making sure not to step on the body lying atop the pile of towels.

Mabel let out a small squeak as she spotted her physical form curled up on the floor. "That- that's weird-" She broke off as her breathing began to speed up. Dipper felt a pang of worry. You couldn't have a panic attack without a body, right? Apparently, he wasn't correct as his sister began to pace frantically, casting looks to her body and Dipper and her hands and back.

"Mabel, calm down," Dipper breathed. "Uh, it's ok. We'll just get you back into your body and you'll be all good, ok?"

Mabel nodded swiftly and ground to a halt, shaking visibly. Dipper reached out a hand to give her shoulder a squeeze before his fingers simply went right through her form. The young artist looked down at the protruding appendages and let out a whimper. The boy felt a deep feeling of sympathy overcome him, feeling his sister's fear. He withdrew his fingers.

"So, just kind of… lie down in it," Dipper instructed. "I've only been possessed once, so…"

"Yeah," Mabel whispered, kneeling down. She cast her body a terrified look before closing her eyes and easing one hand into her physical one. The rest of her form followed soon after. Dipper watched, a bit amazed, as the curling light disappeared and his sister fit herself into her body, vanishing from sight. He watched her face and chest, waiting for signs of movement or life.

Nothing happened.

The boy continued to look her over, giving her shoulders a gentle shake. "Mabel… Mabel, you there…?"

He was almost scared out of his skin as his sister burst back out of her physical form like a firework, the boy giving a loud shriek of alarm. Mabel had tears starting to roll down her face. "Dipper, I couldn't wake up!" she wailed. "I tried and I tried but I couldn't breathe and my heart wasn't beating and I felt like-" She stopped speaking as she flung herself towards her brother, going straight through him and causing him to shiver violently. The girl let out a small sob, not able to feel her brother. "I… I was dead, Dips."

"Mabel, it's ok," Dipper assured her, trying desperately not to sound like he was terrified. "Uh, there could be another explanation. Y-your body's still warm and movable, and you've been out for a day. If you were actually dead, you would have been cold and paralyzed by now, right?" His voice was extremely fast, but he hoped he was making his panicked sibling feel better.

Mabel turned to face him, eyes darting around the room. "Dipper, I'm scared," she admitted in a small voice.

Her brother took a deep breath. "That's ok, too."

The two slipped into silence, the older of the two curling up and huddling in her sweater like a turtle. Dipper walked over to her and sat down. She may not be able to physically feel his skin, but hopefully she could sense his warmth. He'd read about ghosts and mindscape forms being able to do that. He sighed in relief as she leaned into him slightly, letting out a soft breath of comfort.

"That thing," Dipper murmured. "That's probably what it did. It probably… separated you from your body and made it so you couldn't go back. It's ok, though, if we can find it again, then we can get you back to normal."

"Sure hope so, bro." Mabel's miserable voice was barely audible through her sweater.

He sighed and leaned back, touching her physical body gently. "Hey, Mabel, I'm going to go tell Wendy about… you. Uh, you want to come with me, or stay here, or…"

"I'll just stay here," his sister replied quickly, lifting her face out of the knitted fabric. Dipper winced a bit when he saw her puffy eyes. He got up, carefully stepping over the form of the young artist lying on the floor. His sister's helpless gaze followed him as he closed the door, descended the stairs and headed for the gift shop.

Wendy sat alone. There weren't any tourists around, much to Dipper's relief. He walked up to her slowly, hoping she had calmed down since their rather unusual encounter a while ago. She didn't catch sight of him, as her nose buried in a magazine.

"Uh, hey Wendy," Dipper greeted her hesitantly. The lumberjack's head shot up and she snapped the magazine shut. Relaxing a bit once she saw who it was, she sat up in her chair and lowered her head.

"Hey, Dipper," she responded. "Um… what's up?"

"Mabel's back," he informed her, his tone rather quiet. Wendy's eyes went wide, her entire body tensing.

"Wait, you mean she woke up?"

"No, she didn't wake up," Dipper quickly corrected. This was going to be hard to explain. "Uh… she's not really… in her physical form at all, actually. But she's not a ghost! She's just… uh… separated."

Wendy got up from her stool. "I've gotta see this," she mumbled, following the smaller employee as he started to lead her out of the gift shop. They went through the living room, treading quietly as they climbed up the stairs and headed towards the attic. However, as they reached the door to the twin's room, Dipper stopped, his face looking a bit uneasy.

"Um, she's a little upset right now," he warned the redhead. "Kinda got scared of her body. So, just be gentle around her, ok?"

"Ok," Wendy breathed as he opened the door.

Mabel was still sitting on the floor, but she looked noticeably calmer and her face was cleaned up. She raised her head, meeting the older employee's gaze. Wendy stared at the transparent girl, then at the body lying on the floor, then to Dipper. "Oh, wow…"

"Weird, huh?" Mabel asked, trying to sound as upbeat as possible. Dipper smiled. His ordinary sister seemed to be poking her head out of the mess that had taken place in the last hour. The more normal she was, the easier it would hopefully be to get her back inside her body.

"Yeah," Wendy answered, blinking furiously. "What the… what's going on with the light?"

"I'm not sure," Dipper replied honestly, shrugging. Wendy had begun to walk around Mabel, looking at her much the way Dipper had a few minutes ago. Her eyes widened at the sight of her female friend transparent and… grey. Mabel had always seemed so colorful, so it was incredibly strange to see the opposite now. "I think it's because the light can't show on her, but can't go through her either. So it kind of just goes around."

"Mabel, are you ok?" Wendy asked, kneeling down to the girl. The young artist nodded and stood up, brushing herself off and giving a weak grin.

"Ok? Think of all the pranks I'm going to be able to pull like this," she joked quietly. She brightened a bit. "You think it would be ok to scare the tourists? Just a little?"

"Mabel, we have to get you back into your body," Dipper reminded her. "But first we have to figure out how."

"Well, I'm calling Soos," Wendy announced, pulling out her phone. "He'll want to hear about this as soon as he can. I bet we're going to have to do some research." Dipper grinned at the thought, obviously looking forward to reading his journal in front of everyone. Mabel snorted.

"Tell him I said hey," Mabel requested, walking over to her brother and sticking her fingers through his arm. He let out a squeak at the sudden cold, but his heart leaped when he heard his sister laughing. _That's such a relief. If I'd lost the old Mabel because of this, I don't know what I'd do_.

"You know what, Dipper?" she asked, chortling at his face. "I don't like this, but I think I can deal with it."."


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Soos arrived at the Shack minutes after he got the call from Wendy. The three were standing in the Pine's twins bedroom, Mabel repeatedly trying to phase through a wall while her brother and friend watched, when Soos opened the door.

"Ok, dudes, where's M-" Soos was cut off as Mabel hopped off the bed and ran towards him, smiling. "Oh, whoa."

"Pretty cool, right?" Mabel asked. "I'm going to spy on so many people."

"Yet another reason to get her back in her body," murmured Wendy to Dipper, who covered his mouth to prevent a laugh from coming out. He walked over to Soos and stood beside Mabel.

"Wendy and I are going to go look at the spot where we saw that creature," he announced. "Soos, do you think you and Mabel can go looking through those books in the gift shop? We need to find out what that thing was."

"Oh, sure dude," Soos replied, attempting to tousle Mabel's hair and shivering comically when his hand went right through her head. Mabel laughed and swatted at his fingers.

"Yeah, bro bro, don't worry about us," she assured him. "We'll find that creature."

"Good," Dipper responded. He reached down and picked up his backpack from beside his bed. "Wendy, you ready to go?"

"Ready as ever," she answered. She buttoned up the top button on her flannel and tugged her hat further over her hair, following the twelve year old out the door. "Be back in an hour!" she called to her friends as the pair walked down the steps.

As soon as they were out the door, Dipper made a beeline for the faint path in the woods, Wendy in tow. The air had gotten a bit warmer than it had been when he had gone looking in the morning, and the sky was just a bit brighter. The young detective pulled out his journal and started turning pages towards the back as he walked. Wendy had to pull him out of the way as the distracted boy almost ran into a tree. "Dude, you might want to watch where you're going," she warned playfully.

"I know," he responded, tucking his book into his vest embarrassedly and looking at the trail ahead, continuing on. Wendy chuckled and followed him, stretching out one arm lazily to brush the tree trunks.

"Ok, so when I first saw the monster, I was about half a mile from the start," Dipper thought out loud, pointing at the path. "Meaning about three quarters from here. If we hurry, we can get a good look at the spot."

"Sounds like a plan," Wendy agreed, increasing her pace as the boy broke into a trot.

They moved through the dark trees of the Gravity Falls woods, falling into a comfortable silence. There were no dead leaves or crackly things in the path, making it so that their footsteps were rather quiet. The leaves rustled in the wind high above them, the birds twittered, and the occasional crack or swish indicated the presence of an animal on the forest floor growing disturbed.

They passed the meeting spot, where the four had dispersed and gone on in their different directions. For a moment, Dipper stared at Mabel's path. If he had gone with her, would things have been any different? Would he have maybe helped her run away, or found a place to hide, or dug out his journal and found some sort of protective spell? Could this entire mess have been avoided? The thoughts sleepily raised their heads in his brain before yawning and allowing themselves to doze off again.

Finally, the duo reached the spot in the trail where Dipper had first found the thing. The footprints in the mud marked where the frantic chase had started. The pair stopped, staring at where the path continued on, and where the young detective had wildly made his way through the shrubbery and undergrowth in a panicked attempt to get away from his pursuer.

"So, this is where it happened, huh?" Wendy asked, sounding a bit awed.

"Yeah," Dipper replied. He stared at the prints in the muck, blinking. He could still see the imprints his shoes had made. "Ok, I say we start here and keep looking until we get to the ravine. There has to be traces of that creature somewhere."

"Gotcha," Wendy acknowledged, throwing him a friendly salute and promptly beginning to follow the trail. He stayed a distance behind her, inspecting every last print and mark in the ground. There really wasn't anything too unusual about them. They looked just like any other footprints in mud, and there was nothing around them to suggest otherwise. Even the trees around the path seemed undamaged as they had been earlier.

He sighed, poking his finger into the grime and pulling out again. There were small pebbles, twigs and the occasional piece of moss, but no indications of the thing's presence. No claws or blood or hairs. He could feel something inside him starting to tremble uneasily. _What if it was truly insubstantial? What if there's nothing left to show what hurt my sister?_

That was, of course, before he heard Wendy's shouts some fifteen meters ahead.

"Uh, Dipper? You might want to come look at this!"

Lifting his face and fingers from the ground, the boy took off in his friend's direction. Upon reaching her he gasped for a good breath of air and peered up at her. "What? What'd you find?"

Wendy pointed at the ground. There, among his many scattered footprints, was a small smear of something. Something black, and dark, and the exact same color as whatever had chased him…

"It's ash," she commented, as though reading his mind. She knelt down beside him, their shoulders brushing as she pushed a finger through the obsidian powder. He rubbed his eyes, feeling emotion starting to swamp him. Relief, curiosity, panic and triumph rang through his heart as he stared at Wendy's find.

"I think it might have swooped down and tried to grab me," he made sense of it. "It must have left this…"

"Well, this is a lead, right?" Wendy asked. She pinched a bit of the ash and lifted it up for him to see before letting go, allowing it to flutter down to earth again. "I mean, there can't be that many things that leave ash around when they chase people for no reason."

"It probably had a reason," Dipper murmured. He shuddered, feeling the pitch black powder on his fingers. It felt so strange, so wrong touching it, despite the normal ashy texture. When his skin brushed against it, his back prickled and sweat beaded uncomfortably about his body, as though something were horribly wrong. It was like dipping his fingers into deadly poison or acid. He just… it didn't feel right at all.

Wendy obviously was having similar sensations. After a few tentative touches, she stopped handling the ash altogether and readjusted her hat and flannel uncomfortably. Her eyes darted about, suddenly incredibly cautious, and he was able to see her shivering a bit.

"That doesn't feel ok," she remarked, and Dipper agreed with her eagerly. They got up and began to comb over the rest of the trail.

In a few places, they found similar smudges of strange black ash, but both avoided touching it. There were maybe ten in all, all from places where Dipper had seen the creature. However, they completely vanished where the thing had given up. Both relaxed as soon as the dust was out of sight. They felt strangely safe without it around.

"I guess we should head back," Dipper decided, looking over the trail they had just come down. "I mean, we know what to look for now, so I bet we have more luck finding it."

"Fair enough," Wendy agreed. They shared a glance, both of them telling the other that there was another reason to go back, and that was to get away from the ash. The feeling of helpless fear around it just wasn't bearable for long periods of time.

Unlike the approach, the pair's return to the Shack was slow and ruminating. Both were clearly deep in thought, wrapped up in their own opinions and theories so much that they scarcely spoke to one another the entire way home. Dipper wondered exactly why he hadn't been comfortable around the remains of the creature, and how this could have affected Mabel. He cast a gaze over to Wendy, who was staring at the path by her feet, cogitating. He had no idea what was running through her head.

When the old building finally crept into sight, the pair increased their pace and almost ran up to the Shack. Wendy opened the door and Dipper burst inside, rushing up the stairs to tell the news to his sister and friend. The redhead followed, almost tripping on his heels.

Soos and Mabel were resting on the floor, Soos holding a mythology book and Mabel sticking out her tongue at him. However, as soon as Wendy and Dipper entered, they looked up, abandoning whatever playful argument they had just been involved in. "We have a lead," Dipper announced, feeling his cheeks go a little red at how official he sounded.

"Finally!" Mabel cheered. "We've been looking through these books for ages…" She dragged out the word 'ages' to make her point as known as possible.

"Did you find anything that leaves ashes?" Wendy asked, sitting down with the young detective and opening a book.

"Uh… Phoenixes. Dragons. And sometimes ghosts, but only if they're on fire," Soos contemplated. The pleased expression on Dipper's face faltered a bit.

"It wasn't any of those…" he murmured.

"Well, we haven't finished looking through the journal yet," Mabel reminded him, leaning forward and poking the fabric of her brother's vest where the ancient book was kept. Shivering at the cold she induced, Dipper pulled out the journal and opened it to where he left off. Interested, Wendy and Soos leaned in much the way Mabel had, peering over Dipper's shoulders and gazing at the pages with him.

"Ok, so… Unicorns, nope. Giant cactus? Definitely nope. Harpies?" Dipper sighed and turned the page again. "No. Hellhound?"

"Maybe," Wendy shrugged. "They don't leave ashes in their trail, though, do they?"

"And they can't fly," Dipper mused. "Ok, nope. Next page, next page…"

This trial-and-error research continued on for some time. The journal was not a small book, and the supernatural things inside it carried on and on. Every once and a while, one of the gang would find a possible culprit, but the others would soon find ways to prove it wrong. They were down to the last few full pages of the journal when finally Soos found a creature that matched Dipper's description.

"Wait, dude, I saw something back there. Uh, turn three pages back… No, not two, three. There it is!"

Dipper stopped on a particularly ink-splattered page with an almost completely black illustration on it. He looked at the title, his mouth opening a tiny bit as he read it. "Light Eater?"

"Sounds like that thing," Wendy mumbled, tracing her finger across the side of the page and beginning to read silently along with her friends. The articulately drawn picture of the Light Eater gave all four shivers. It looked a bit like a cross between a dragon, a horse, a zombie and a snake, with a completely unhinged jaw and a bony, whiplike tail. The legs were long and skinny, rather like a giraffe's, and it had a pair of slightly-feathered wings on its back that were too small for flying. The most unsettling thing about the drawing was that the flesh of the Light Eater was dripping off like water, hanging in tatters like torn clothing from the emaciated body and tangled in the wings like wire.

"Ok." Dipper started to read, his eyes getting a bit wider. "The Light Eater is an incredibly elusive creature that seems exclusive to Gravity Falls. They are often seen at night and can be distinguished by their glowing greenish-blue eyes. In darkness, they appear completely invisible, as though their bodies were made up of the darkness itself.

"They seem to be neutral towards humans, but observing them has taught me otherwise. They are like supernatural vultures, following the dying and stealing away their life forces as well as taking the remnants of life from both animal and human corpses. They do not like to be seen by humans, making them hard to find, but occasionally they are lured out by hunger." Dipper stopped, swallowing hard.

"If a Light Eater is desperate enough, they will hunt down healthy creatures and take their life forces, leaving the body to decompose and the spirit to wander endlessly." He stopped reading, almost dropping the book. "This is what we've been looking for the whole time!"

"So I'm really not dead," Mabel murmured, her eyes growing brighter. "We just have to get my life back! Literally!"

"There has to be some way to track down this thing." Wendy was pulling on the page, not giving Dipper the chance to read the rest of the text. "Aha! Here!"

"Light Eaters most often live in caves and dark areas, where they cannot be exposed to light. Huh, that makes sense." Dipper pointed to the large weakness box at the bottom of the page. Written inside with slightly darker ink were the words _Flashlights and black pepper_. "Rarely glimpsed by any living thing, as they are not truly classified as living things themselves, they can stay hidden without food or water for years. As far as I can tell, they do not take mates and are solitary for the entirety of their lives, without gender or communication to others."

"Heh, that thing must be lonely," Soos pondered. "Uh, keep reading."

"They can be tracked by-" Dipper gave a short laugh of triumph. "The ash-like residue they leave behind! We were right!"

"Anything else?" Wendy asked.

"Uh, the ashes. Ahem." Dipper slipped back into his reading voice. "The ashes are not ashes at all, but rather bits and pieces of the Light Eater's physical form left behind accidently from contact with other physical things. Do not make contact with these particles, as prolonged exposure can slowly wither away your life force." The young detective shuddered. "Yeah, maybe we shouldn't have touched those."

"Well, at least we left them out there and didn't bring any back," Wendy sighed. "Is that it?"

"Uh, there's some stuff about habitat and feeding rituals and things, but that's pretty much it." Dipper shut his book. "I'll go find the blacklight in case there's something in invisible ink. You guys think you can look up the locations of caves around here?"

"Roger," Wendy raised her hand in a salute. "Come on, Mabel, let's head downstairs. I think there's a map somewhere in the gift shop."

"I'll look up here!" Soos volunteered.

"Thanks, Soos," Dipper smiled. He followed Mabel and Wendy out of the room, leaving his older friend behind to search for maps in the attic. As soon as he was out, Dipper began to search about for his blacklight.

He knew it wasn't in the attic, as he had gone looking for it in there earlier that day and hadn't found it. Besides, if it was somehow up there, Soos would most likely stumble upon it at some point. It wasn't in the kitchen or the downstairs closet, and probably wasn't in Soos's breakroom either… It could be in the living room, the parlor or the area on the second floor, he supposed.

After heading downstairs and checking thoroughly through both rooms, Dipper walked back upstairs and found the blacklight wedged between two cushions on the spot beside in the window. He almost laughed at himself. He had lost a perfectly good blacklight the same way Stan usually lost the remote. It was pretty comical, to him at least.

However, he didn't have much time to ponder before he heard Soos shouting from the attic. He lifted his ear, narrowing his eyes as he tried to make out the concerned words.

"Uh, dudes? Wendy? You, uh, you might want to come look at this! Dipper, you especially!"

Stuffing the blacklight into his vest, Dipper got to his feet and joined Mabel and Wendy running back up the stairs to the attic. Wendy was carrying a large map with her. They reached the twin's room quickly and burst in, looking at Soos, who was crouched on the floor beside Mabel's body.

"What? What is it?" Dipper asked, bending down beside the body of his sister. Mabel gained a worried expression once she saw where they were looking, and retreated into her sweater a bit.

Soos took a deep breath and gestured wildly to Mabel's forehead. At first, Dipper didn't get it. She looked pretty much the same as she had yesterday, though maybe a little more rigid.

"What's up, man?" Wendy asked, squeezing her way beside the body and looking at Mabel's physical form with concern. "Um, I don't see anything wrong with her."

Soos gestured wildly, not wanting to speak. Seemingly giving up on speech, he grabbed Dipper's wrist and pressed it to his sister's forehead. Mabel looked bewildered and anxious at the same time, hovering over the three as they touched her physical form.

"Uh, dude, I don't…" Dipper trailed off, his eyes going wide with creeping panic when he finally noticed what was wrong. He felt Mabel's skin, checking to see if he had been right and only growing more alarmed when he confirmed he had.

"What's wrong?"

Dipper shook his head wordlessly, retracting his hand and letting it rest on his knee. "You're not warm anymore."

For Mabel's forehead was as cold as stone.

* * *

**A/N: Holy crap guys, sorry I didn't update yesterday. I got caught up in my sister's equestrian vaulting competition and didn't have access to wifi. Sorry about that. Anyway, here's the new chapter. (And yes, I did make up the Light Eater for the purpose of this story. And drew it.) Montydragon, out!**


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

For a few moments, the four stood in silence. Not one of them dared to speak, lest they frighten the others even further. Mabel was downright trembling, though it was clear she was doing her best to hide it. Finally, Wendy broke the quiet cautiously and uneasily.

"Dipper, I think you should turn on that blacklight," she murmured, nudging him a bit. Understanding what she meant immediately, Dipper dug into his jacket and pulled out the blacklight as well as the journal. He opened it back up to the page on Light Eaters and switched on the light with shaking hands. As his older friend had suspected, the page was covered in scratchy handwriting and splotches, all in invisible ink.

With a soft voice, Dipper began to read.

"In the incredibly rare situation that a Light Eater cannot find enough food, they will steal the forces of the living. This cannot be reversed with any sort of spell or trick, as the Light Eater can only restore the life itself undamaged. Light Eaters will spend days or even weeks feeding off the forces, making the healthy life last as long as they can.

"The body, once the life force reaches a certain weakness, will slip out of its preserved state and rot. Once this has begun, there is no way to reunite the disembodied soul with its physical form. In most cases, the spirit will fade away into nothingness after a period of time without reincarnation or afterlife, gone from the universe and life itself forever." Dipper slowly looked up from the page to where his sister stood, utterly, utterly silent.

For another few moments, nobody spoke again.

"Mabel, you have to have seen where that monster went," Dipper said, his voice calm but dangerously shaky. "It had to have gone someplace. Where did it go? You have to remember."

"Dipper… I can't… I can't remember anything…"

"You have to." Dipper whipped around, staring her in the eye. "You have to have seen where it went! We need to know where it is!"

"I don't even remember seeing it!" Mabel shouted, the anger in her voice thickly interwoven with anguish. She had stood up, staring down at her brother with a dark fire in her colorless eyes. The light bending around her intensified, her body taking on slightly dimmer hue.

"Mabel, this is serious! You have to remember!" Dipper was getting to his feet, trying to argue with his sister face to face. Soos made a move as if to intervene, but clearly thought better of it as Dipper clenched a fist. Wendy pushed herself a few inches back.

Mabel's body had grown even darker. "I can't!" she yelled, almost standing on her tiptoes. "I can't remember anything, and I don't know where that stupid thing went! If I knew, I would have told you! I can't!" For once, the group saw a tiny bit of red color enter her face, the stress making her furious and confused.

"If you don't remember, then there's no hope!" Dipper cried. "Your…"

The group seemed to pause. Dipper, red in the face and panting, was staring at the group, shaking. It wasn't apparent whether or not he had simply lost the ability to speak through angry frustration. It wasn't until he looked up, the fire dying from his eyes and tears starting to slide down his cheeks, that the three realized exactly why.

"Your life depends on it," Dipper finished quietly, wiping his face and trying not to let his knees buckle.

Mabel's tensed body went limp. The dark color of her body faded and she stared at her brother, eyes glittering and hands falling to her sides. Soos looked down, not wanting to emotionally damage her any further. Wendy had an odd feeling, as though trespassing on a private moment.

"I'm sorry Dipper," the young artist whimpered. She sniffed loudly and wiped her nose on her sweater, walking across the room to her brother and trying her best to hug him without being substantial. Despite the fact he couldn't feel her, Dipper wrapped his arms around the shaky girl the best he could.

"It's ok," he mumbled back, gently letting go of her and sinking to the ground. His sister flopped down next to him, a hand on his knee. "I… I should be saying sorry. I got too scared, and I thought you could have known, but I guess I was wrong."

"It's ok." Mabel looked down into his eyes, retracting her hand and sitting up as straight as she could. Her attention turned to the other two currently looking on.

"There's probably another way," Wendy said quietly, pushing herself closer to the siblings. As the twins and Soos looked at her, she was quick to explain. "I mean, another way to figure out where the Light Eater lives. There have to be other supernatural creatures or people who know."

"But, dude, there's like nobody in town that even knows what it is," Soos put in. "I think I would have heard of it by now if there was."

"Well, how many supernatural creatures can we even communicate with?" Dipper asked, regaining his composure a bit and scratching the hair under his hat. There was quiet in the room.

Finally, Mabel butted in. "There's those weird centaur-bull things you spent the day with once."

"Oh, the manotaurs," Dipper corrected. "I don't think they'd be willing to tell me if they knew. Of course, there's also the multi-bear, but he's pretty far away and he doesn't exactly get out much."

"Hey, what about those gnomes you were talking about a month ago?" Soos asked. He was fidgeting a bit, moving his cap back and forth and looking at Dipper a bit uncomfortably. "I mean, they seemed pretty smart, I guess."

"No gnomes," Mabel murmured darkly. That was the end of the suggestion.

"What about those little golf people?" Dipper asked. "Wait, no, they hate our guts. Nope."

There was a pause in the discussion. Dipper wracked his brain for other supernatural creatures he had seen that summer while Mabel did more or less the same thing. Soos was tapping his chin, wearing an almost philosophical expression.

"The ghosts probably know," Wendy finally mumbled.

All three turned to look at her. Not expecting to become the focus so quickly, Wendy's eyes widened and she cocked her head a bit. Dipper moved forward a little. "You mean the lumberjack guy?"

"No, those ghosts from the haunted Dusk2Dawn," Wendy said. "I mean, it's not like they really like us, but they know a lot. Maybe they know where this weird thing lives. I mean, it does have to do with afterlifes and spirits and junk."

"You know, that's actually a really great idea," Dipper murmured. "Why didn't we think of that before? They've been around long enough to have seen it."

"Uh, Dip, you remember what happened last time we went there, right?" Mabel asked uneasily. Dipper narrowed his eyes, then nodded.

"Yeah, but they only did that because Wendy's friends were messing around," he replied. "The only teenager we're bringing with us now is Wendy."

"And it's not like I'll be messing around like last time," Wendy put in, looking a bit indignant. "So, what exactly is the plan?"

Dipper sat there, thinking over everything he had encountered that summer. What approach would work here? It's not like they could just stroll in. Maybe they needed some sort of summoning spell? No, that seemed a bit impolite for the elderly ghosts, who really had been quite kind as soon as they realized the teens would leave. Perhaps they could just call them? Maybe Wendy's presence would draw them out anyway…

After a moment of pondering, Dipper sat up with a determined expression on his face. "We approach the building at night," he started, wishing he had some sort of map to show them for the purpose of the presentation. "You know, since ghosts are more active at night and stuff. Then Mabel has to call for them."

"Wait, why do I have to do that?" Mabel asked, looking up to meet her brother in the eye swiftly.

"Since you're a disembodied spirit, they'll most likely hear you rather than us wherever they are," Dipper explained. "You know, since you guys are basically in the same dimension. Sorta. Look, it sounds weird in theory, but it should work."

"Makes enough sense," Soos shrugged.

"As soon as the ghosts come out, I'll do the talking," Dipper continued. "After all, they most likely trust me after that dance I did… Anyway, I'll ask them where we can find the Light Eater. If they know, we'll prepare to find it and get Mabel's life force back."

There was quiet in the room. Finally, Mabel shrugged. "Sounds like a dorky plan. I like it."

"Totally, dude," Wendy replied with a smile. "So, should we just leave when it gets dark?"

"Sounds good," Dipper responded. He stood up and tucked the journal securely in his vest. "We all meet here around eight thirty, then."

"Great," Wendy answered. "I should probably go downstairs and finish my shift before Stan notices I'm gone." She got to her feet and headed out of the attic towards the gift shop. Soos rose and turned to follow her.

"Same here, dudes," he called, disappearing out the door. Mabel and Dipper were left alone in the room, staring at where their friends had gone. After perhaps half a minute, Mabel stood at well and walked beside her brother.

Dipper was rather quiet for somebody who had just spouted out a master plan to obtain vital information. He looked down the stairs, just barely able to hear the shuffles as Wendy settled back in her spot and the clinks and crackles of Soos putting away groceries. He was still, wondering both what he had just gotten himself into and why he hadn't thought of it before.

"You ok, bro?" Mabel asked, scaring Dipper a bit. She had turned to face him, her colorless eyes blinking worriedly and staring into his. He jolted himself back into social reality and nodded softly.

"Yeah, just a bit anxious," he answered.

Mabel snorted weakly. "Well, can't say I haven't felt like that in the past few hours," she chuckled, wiping her nose.

For just a moment, Dipper could have sworn he saw a flicker of something on his sister's body. As she laughed, hints of color swarmed back into her clothing, her hair, her skin. The wonderful sound seemed to reverberate about her body, shaking the life back into everything for just a second and coloring the grey girl. But as soon as it had come, it was gone.

He blinked. His sister was back to the way she had been moments ago, without color and confusingly gloomy. He rubbed his eyes, wondering if he had imagined the brief second where he had seen his sister normally again. _Probably just getting hopeful_…

With a short sigh, he started heading for the door. "Well, I should probably go start planning how we're going to get there," he called to the young artist behind him. "You know, since Thompson can't exactly drive us…"

"How about you ask Soos to drive us there in his truck?" Mabel called. "No, wait, I'll ask Soos. You go see if we need any weird supernatural supplies or anything."

"Gotcha," Dipper answered with a small smile. He shivered as his sister barreled past him down the stairs towards where Soos was surely finishing with the groceries. That reminded him. _Should probably go see if Stan is going to get mad at us if we go out tonight_.

He walked down the stairs cautiously. Stan wasn't in the living room, nor the kitchen or the gift shop. Dipper walked around the Shack until he finally stumbled across the man packing supplies into the El Diablo.

"Hey, Grunkle Stan, what are you doing?" the boy asked confusedly. The man almost dropped the fake taxidermy he was holding and whipped around to face the boy.

"Packing up some things," Stan responded gruffly. "I'm taking some old exhibits out to a buddy in town. Soos said he'd take care of you, since I'm getting back pretty late tonight."

"Oh, how late?" Dipper asked. If Stan wasn't going to get back until, say, really-really late, then maybe they could just go without telling their great uncle. It wouldn't do any damage.

"Heh, depends. He said we'd be heading out into town a little later, so, I dunno, maybe midnight. Don't worry, Soos is trustworthy," Stan reassured him. The old man paused, scratching his chin. "Ish."

"No, I'm not worried," Dipper hastily corrected him. "Uh, have a good time."

"There's hot dogs in the fridge for dinner," his great uncle replied, stuffing a fur into the trunk and heading back towards the gift shop. Dipper watched him go quietly, a mixture of excitement and fear slowly building in his stomach. They should be back by midnight. They could just slip away while Stan was away, find out where to find the Light Eater, and head back to the Shack unnoticed. Then again, if for some reason they got back later than that, there was the chance Stan could get pretty mad. Sure, he hadn't been mad when Wendy and her friends spent the entire night in the Dusk2Dawn before, but he had seemed a bit distracted.

With a decision to simply go with it and hope for the best, Dipper walked away from the car and back towards the Shack. His uncle had told him earlier to restock some of the supplies, anyway, and he didn't want Wendy to get stuck with that job. He didn't want Wendy to get stuck with any job. This entire mess had stressed out everybody, and it was for the best they stayed calm until it was solved.

The bell clinked as he walked into the gift shop. Wendy looked up boredly from the register, her face brightening wonderfully as she spotted the twelve year old. "Oh, hey Dipper," she greeted cheerfully.

"Hey, Wendy. You know where Soos is?"

"I think he's outside near his truck," Wendy mused, scratching the messy red hair underneath her fur cap. She stretched and yawned, glancing at the door. "Man, sometimes I wish those tourists would come around, just so I'd have something to do."

"Well, we're basically sneaking out to interrogate some ghosts tonight," Dipper pondered, heading towards the back to bring out a few more of the cheesy Mystery Shack snowglobes. "I guess that's something."

"Yeah, you're right," Wendy grinned. She propped her feet up on the counter and stared the ceiling as her twelve year old companion found a few pieces of shoddy merchandise and began organizing them on the shelf. He finished with the snowglobes and brought out some scarves, followed by keychains, followed by bumper stickers. He was almost halfway through stocking up the brochures when he heard the door swing open. The light bended and stretched as Mabel, grinning broadly, skipped into the room and stopped next to her brother.

"Soos says he'll drive us," she smiled. "Apparently he was supposed to like, babysit us tonight anyway."

"Yeah, Stan told me that," Dipper replied. "He's going to be gone until midnight, I think."

"Well, all the better for finding those ghosts I guess…" Mabel trailed off, shrugging a bit. "I can't wait!"

"Me neither," Dipper responded. He stuffed the last of the brochures into the slot and sat down next to the counter with his disembodied sister. "We'll have to be careful though. I don't want to upset any more supernatural beings."

"Ditto," Wendy remarked, leaning over the counter. "But hey. We're making an effort to get Mabel's life force back, and that's what matters."

* * *

**A/N: So... I did it! I updated before the next episode! Hours before! Holy crap, I'm so excited... This is going to be so cool...**

**Also, on a side note, if we have any Steven Universe fans here, check out the PonyGrim account! My friend and I did a seven chapter collab for SU over there, and the story's pretty good, if I do say so myself. It's called Helpless. **

**If we're being honest, I have no idea when I'm going to get the next chapter of this out, guys. But hey. It's in progress. **


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